c.1637-1669. He was chairman of the committee for enquiry into the miscarriages of the civil war. He was educated privately by Daniel Milles, later rector of Pepys’ local church, St Olave’s. He acquired Old Wanstead House from his father-in-law, Sir Henry Mildmay the regicide.
5 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
Sir Robert Brooke -- how he lived in
Old Wanstead House (Wanstead, Essex)
Sir Henry Mildmay, a regicide, had owned the house since 1619. His son-in-law, Sir Robert Brooke lived there from 1662-7. It was replaced around 1715 by another which was in turn pulled down in 1823. It is now the site of Wanstead Park. http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
Terry Foreman • Link
Sir Robert Brooke (1637 - 5 June 1669) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1660 to 1669.
Brooke was the second surviving son of Sir Robert Brooke (died 1646) of Cockfield Hall and his wife Elizabeth Colepeper, daughter of Thomas Colepeper of Wigsale, Sussex. He was educated privately under Daniel Milles. In 1659 he became JP. for Suffolk and in 1659 became a commssioner for the militia. In April 1660, he was elected Member of Parliament for Aldeburgh in the Convention Parliament. He also became lieutenant colonel of the Suffolk Militia in April 1660. He was knighted on 9 June 1660 for his services to the Restoration. In July 1660 he became commissioner for oyer and terminer for Middlesex, and in August 1660 became commissioner for assessment for Suffolk.[1]
Brooke was re-elected MP for Aldeburgh in 1661 for the Cavalier Parliament where he was very active. In 1661 he became commissioner for assessment for Aldeburgh and in 1662 became a JP for Essex and six clerk in Chancery. He became commissioner for assessment for Essex in 1663. In 1667, he was appointed chairman of the inquiry into the failures of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, and presented four reports. Samuel Pepys wrote of him extensively in his diary considering him too young for the chair, "and yet he seems to speak very well".[1]
Brooke went to France in 1669 and was drowned while bathing in the River Rhone at Avignon in June.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robe…
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
BROOKE, Robert (c.1637-69), of Cockfield Hall, Yoxford, Suff. and Wanstead House, Essex.
Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
http://www.historyofparliamentonl…
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... and I took a coach, and to Wanstead, the house where Sir H. Mildmay died, ..."
Yet a couple of the annotations say Mildmay died in Antwerp on his way to prison in Tangier in early 1664 (his paperwork was done in March). I think Pepys is wrong -- no convicted Regicides died at home in their beds. As to Antwerp, I'd love to know where they got that information. Pepys should know -- he's paying for the shipping and must see the manifests. Yet another puzzle.
Harry R • Link
Yet a couple of the annotations say Mildmay died in Antwerp on his way to prison in Tangier in early 1664 (his paperwork was done in March). I think Pepys is wrong -- no convicted Regicides died at home in their beds. As to Antwerp, I'd love to know where they got that information. Pepys should know -- he's paying for the shipping and must see the manifests. Yet another puzzle.
Wikipedia says he died in Tangiers in 1664. The reference note attributes this detail to Andrew Thrush, https://www.historyofparliamenton…